FLOATING CONTINENTS

Hokitika Guardian, 11 February 1928, Page 1

FLOATING CONTINENTS

Slit EDGEWORTH DAVID'S LECTURE. SYDNEY, Jan. 2(5. One ol the outstanding personalities at the annual congress at Hobart of the Association for the Advancement ol Science was Professor Sir Edgeworth David, of Sydney. One of Nature’s gentlemen, he charms all who come in contact with him. lJis facility for interesting the public in scientific matters is remarkable, so it is not surprising that when he gave a public lecture at Hobart on the subject: "Do Continents Float?” he had a large and interested audience. Professor David said that radio-ac-tive evidence showed that some of the oldest rocks dated back .1.000.(100.00(1 yea;-. .In such, a vast period of time the continents had moved both vertically and horizontally. For example, the recent work of geologists in New Guinea had shown that deposits ol sin'll material submerged under the sea al no very remote geological age laid now been elevated Ri.ttllil leet above sea-level, anil constituted tne high mountain range like that in which is situated Queen Wilhclniiua Peak, near the centre of th island. Recent work by the distinguished Swiss geologist. Wegner, had shown, said Sir Edgeworth David, that the earth’s crust in that region had actually moved horizontally in a south Lo north direction, estimated at I l oin .'i-,0 to 70!) mile.-. So great a movement as this was considered to have carried what was formerly the north shore ot Africa, between Algiers and Tunis, right across what is now the .Mediterranean. crumpling the rock material 11)1 so as to form what was now the highest of the Swiss Alps. This astounding conclusion, now widely accepted. was based on the fact that the Swiss Alps were built up out ot immense folds or pleats of the earth’s

crust. An a result of their foundations being temporarily dissolved, the continents began to move under the influence of tidal and other forces, and as the tides moved from east to west the tendency was to pull the continents apart in north and south directions, anil drag the western portion of sueli a rifted region westwards. The Swiss geologist stiowed that the Americas had thus drifted apart from Africa and Western Europe, the result being the genesis of the Atlantic Ocean. Near about the late carboniferous time all these countries were united to a single mass, -aid tile lecturer. Indeed. the world consisted oi a single great land mass. Australia at this time was attached to the eastern side of India and Ceylon, along what is now its west coast. The Great Australian Right and the southern coast generally were attached to that part of the Antarctic which comprised tTie region of Adelie Land, lately explored by Sir Douglas Mawson, while Tasmania and the submerged areas to the south were joined on to the portion of Antarctica, where is now the large gulf of Ross Sea.